INTERNET RESOURCES

Dance: A guide to Web resources

C&RL News, December 2002
Vol. 62 No. 11

by Carol Hansen

The Web provides access to a broad range of information and media on dance, useful to dance students, faculty, and dance aficionados. The Web sites selected for this article were chosen for their usefulness to the general academic dance community with a primary focus on sites devoted to ballet and modern dance. Readers may use the meta sites and directories listed to access many more sites on specific styles of dance from Balinese to zydeko.

The sites below were evaluated for their usability, design, and, primarily, their content. When a commercial site is listed, it is chiefly for the dance information provided, not for the products or services it sells. Print periodicals, mailing lists, discussion groups, and chat sites are not highlighted in this article. Links to many publications and forums are included in the meta sites, as are directories of organizations, dance companies, and lists of prominent dancers. Several magazines with excellent Web sites are listed within the meta sites because of their rich and varied content.

Internet resources on dance are increasingly important to the dance community as more dance performances are preserved and shared through new technologies. Hopefully the sites presented will provide inspiration for dancers, librarians, and researchers to continue searching the Web for dance information and media. Although there are many excellent Web sites on dance, even the best sites seem to have a few dead links, demonstrating that dance sites in cyberspace can be as fleeting as a pirouette across a stage.

Starting points, meta sites and general directories
• Artslynx/Dance. Start here for an easy and useful overview of dance information on the Web. Artlynx editor Richard Finkelstein has created a comprehensive gateway site for finding Web sites on dance. This meta site provides 28 categories of dance links. Categories unique to this site include "Dancer Health" and "This Month in Dance History." The site suffers from a few too many dead links in some areas, for example within the section on "Funding Sources." The list of links to professional, scholarly, educational, and discipline-based organizations is useful for academic dance programs. Other categories of note include "African Dance" and "University Listings." Access: http://www.artslynx.org/dance/.

• @URL Internet Resources: A Dance is Worth 10,000 Words. Find extensive links on all aspects of dance from this New Zealand-based site. The categories on dance and new media include links to sites on dance-related technologies, digital dance/media, software for dance, dance video, dance film and CD-ROMs. Access: http://url.co.nz/arts/dance.html.

• Ballet.co.uk. Ballet.co.uk is a large and attractive site with many articles, links, and images. This free online magazine includes interviews, current news, performances this week, and discussion postings. Pages with links to companies, dancers and schools have a UK and European focus. Links to dance reviews in the global press are updated daily. The reviews database, with its advanced search option, is particularly useful for reading past reviews of dance performances from around the world.
Access: http://www.ballet.co.uk/.

• The Ballet.com. Introductory pages with short articles on the dancer, techniques, and the history of ballet are provided. The site is useful for its daily news updates from international sources. Access: http://www.the-ballet.com/.

• BalletCompanies.com. View more than 2,000 links to ballet and dance companies all over the world from this site created bu Dick Heuff, former head of the audiovisual department of the Netherlands Dance Theatre. This site is useful for its international perspective on dance and sites are provided within geographic directories. Take note of the links in the "Dance and Technologies" section. Access: http://www.balletcompanies.com/.

• Criticaldance.com. Included here are feature articles, reviews, several interviews, a small photo gallery, and selections from the best of their forum discussions. Forums, on many dance styles, have more than 75,000 postings. Access: http://www.criticaldance.com/.

• Culture Kiosque: Dance. Culture Kiosque covers international cultural events with news, commentary, and information on the arts, culture, and entertainment in North America and Europe. This appealing site contains calendars of featured and seasonal events. The selected articles and book and performance reviews are worth a visit to this site. The primary writer on dance for Culture Kiosk is Patricia Boccadoro, who also writes for The Guardian and Dancing Times. Articles are available in English, French, and German. Access: http://www.culturekiosque.com/dance/.


• Cyberdance: Ballet on the Net. A collection of more than 3,500 links to classical ballet and modern dance resources on the Internet can be found here. Visit this site to view long lists of links on events, auditions, competitions, research, FAQs, technology, newsgroups, chat sites, articles, reviews, magazines, summer programs, colleges, and schools. Access: http://www.cyberdance.org/

• Danceart.com. This commercial site provides artwork for the dance community. In addition it provides an extensive list of message boards on over 50 dance related topics including discussions on competitions, girls PG-13, parents only, coffee club, residency programs and one for teachers only.
Access: http://www.danceart.com.

• The Dance Centre Web Resources. A well-designed and easy-to-use comprehensive site with lists of ballet and contemporary dance companies, choreographic centers, dance presenters and performance listings, organizations, funding resources, schools, bulletin boards, mailing lists, newsgroups, magazines and other information resources. This site was developed by The Dance Centre, a not-for-profit society serving individual members and professional dance companies since 1986 in Vancouver, Canada. Access: http://www.thedancecentre.ca/.

• Dance.net. Dance.net promotes community forums for students, dancers, instructors, coaches, choreographers, and studio owners. Community-building features in their software include the ability to comment on almost any message, image and video uploading, member-created polls and feature articles, jobs listings, moderators, and more. Access: http://www.dance.net/.

• Dance Insider Online. The "Flash Reviews" on this site are one of its most popular features. These dance performance reviews are often posted the day after a show. Many of the past reviews include links to video clips. Search by keyword "video" to find clips. See also the "Insider Web Picks" and "Vignettes" by dance critic Tobi Tobias. Dance Insider Online offers a guide to summer schools and other useful advice for dancers and dance students. Readers may subscribe to its free e-mail newsletter.
Access: http://www.danceinsider.com.

• Dance Links at Dancer.com. Dance Links is perhaps the best known and most highly linked to dance site on the Internet. Online since before 1994, it has been worked on at various times by dance videographer Amy Reusch, James White, and Jon Wright. Major categories of links include: “Ballet Companies,” “Modern/Contemporary Dance Companies,” “More Dance Companies (Flamenco, Tap, Butoh, Multimedia, Jazz, World, etc.),” “Dance Presenters and Performance Listings,” “Newsgroups, Dance Publications, Dance FAQs etc.,” “Dance Organizations, Coalitions, etc.” “Dance Schools,” “Dancers,” and “Dance Web Indices.” Pointe shoe manufacturer Gaynor Minden donates the hosting of the site. Access: http://www.dancer.com/dance-links/.

• Sapphire Swan Dance Directory. Many links to more than 30 styles of dance from Aztec to zydeko are provided in this extremely useful directory. Each category listed provides a good collection of links on a particular style or specialized information about an area of dance. This may be the best place to start looking for information on many different dance styles. Access: http://www.sapphireswan.com/dance/.

• Voice of Dance. Voice of Dance is a well-organized and well-designed site with current news, directories, video clips, and an extensive gallery of ballet and modern dance images. It includes references to newspaper reviews with links back to the articles. Its up-to-date performance calendars for selected events in more than 20 North American and European cities is unique. Access: http://www.voiceofdance.com/.

• Yahoo: Dance. Provides links to more than 30 dance style categories from ballet to waltz and from break dance to tango. Access: http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Performing_Arts/Dance/.

Regional gateways
A. London
• Londondance.com. Contains directories, news, features, and a listing of dance events and performances on stage, screen, and television in London and the UK. The Video Box page shows selected trailers from dance works coming to London or performed there recently. Access: http://www.londondance.com.

B. San Francisco
• Baydance.com. Many links on ballet and modern dance companies, performances, theaters, reviews, articles, and other resources are listed for the San Francisco-area dance community.
Access: http://www.baydance.com/.

C. Australia
• Australian Dance Council. Find here information on the profession, research, and dance education for Australia. One of the main goals of the Australian Dance Council is to "establish a forum for exchange of information, ideas, expertise and resources in all areas of dance." Access: http://ausdance.org.au.

Dance dictionaries
• American Ballet Theatre Ballet Dictionary. The American Ballet Theatre's Online Ballet Dictionary is a self-described "unique interactive resource designed to bring dance to the Web." One hundred and seventy terms, from the Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet (Dover), are defined, and most terms are demonstrated with photographs or video clips of American Ballet Theatre dancers. This is a wonderful visual introduction to the steps and movements most important to ballet technique and study.
Access: http://www.abt.org/library/dictionary/.

• Glossarist.com - Dance: Glossaries and Dance Dictionaries. Links to more than 30 glossaries of dance, including glossaries on ballet, flamenco, swing, Irish, and other types of dance, are available from this site. Access: http://www.glossarist.com/glossaries/arts-culture/dance.asp.

• Off Jazz - Jazz and Tap: Terminology. Useful lists of jazz and tap terms in French and English can be found in this site. Also included are short video clips on basic jazz and tap steps.
Access: http://www.offjazz.com/.

Special collections
• American Ballet Theatre Repertory Archive. A comprehensive list of the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) Company's extensive repertoire of performances going back to 1939. The information is arranged by ballet and by choreographer. There are entries for more than 350 ballets, many of which include a synopsis of the ballet; information on the choreographer, scene, costume and lighting designers; the music; and other notes.
Access: http://www.abt.org/library/archive/.

• An American Ballroom Companion. From the more than 200 social dance manuals from 1490 to 1920. It includes 75 video clips that illustrate portions of the dance instruction manuals in this unique, searchable collection. Access: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dihtml/dihome.html.

• The Australian Dance Collection: a Directory of Resources at the National Library of Australia. This recently revived Australian special collection contains links to artistic directors, choreographers, dancers, dance companies, festivals, productions, and a list of oral history interviews located in the National Library. Of special note is its link to a searchable collection of dance images.
Access: http://www.nla.gov.au/ausdance/.

• Center for Black Music Research - Definitions of Style - Musical Theater and Dance. A short bibliography and introductory essay can be found here as well as information on the broader collection. The "CBMR Database" may provide access to information not yet included in standard reference sources. Access: http://www.cbmr.org/css/theater.htm.

• Dance Heritage Coalition. The Dance Heritage Coalition works to identify, develop, and implement projects to keep and use materials documenting dance. Preservation efforts use traditional methods and developing technologies. The Dance Coalition catalogs primary resources that document the history of dance. A searchable database helps visitors find dance materials located in more than 50 archival collections.
Access: http://danceheritage.org/index.htm.

• Dance Libraries, Archives, and Collections in the United States and Canada. From Preserve, Inc., this is a helpful online list of special library collections on dance. Preserve Inc. is a national center for dance archives information that works to create links between dancers, choreographers, librarians, archivists, national repositories, and local networks. Access: http://www.preserve-inc.org/library.html.

• Dance Notation Bureau. The Dance Notation Bureau works to advance the use of dance notation to preserve dances. Dance steps or scores are recorded and preserved using the symbol system called Labanotation, which is described on this site. It includes a Web library and list of links to other notation sites. Access: http://www.dancenotation.org/.

• Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. This collection, established as a separate division in 1944, is the largest archive in the world devoted to the documentation of dance. Major collections of papers, letters, and artifacts from dance greats, including Isadora Duncan, Rudolph Nuryev, Agnes De Mille, Jose Limone, Doris Humphreys, Jerome Robbins and others are housed in this remarkable collection. Don't miss their large gateway of Web links on all types of dance and dance-related issues. Of special note are links to the "Oral History Project" and "AIDS Initiative." Use the Dance Collection Catalog to search the collection by keyword, author, title, and subject.
Access: http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/dan/dan.html.

• SIBMAS International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions. A directory listing over 7000 international institutions is found here. The information in these collections relates to all of the performing arts including theatre, opera, music, ballet, film, circus, radio, television, cabaret and pantomime.
Access: http://www.theatrelibrary.org/sibmas/idpac/.

• Society of Dance History Scholars: Online Resources. This group dedicated to dance history provides a Web guide with dozens of links in nine categories on specific periods of dance history.
Access: http://www.sdhs.org.

Dance media
See the meta sites above for additional links in this category or for links on dance and technology.

• Dance: An Annotated Videography of Holdings in the Media Resources Center, University of California, Berkeley. This videography contains a superb annotated list of dance videos categorized by locale ("Dance in Asia," "Native American Dance," etc.). It also includes a list of movies with dance and a short list of books on dance in film. Access: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/DanceVid.html.

• Dance Films Association. Association members ($35) have access to an online searchable database of the "most comprehensive list of dance films and videos in current distribution in the U.S." The Dance Films association sponsors the internationally recognized Dance on Camera film festival. This site provides information on other dance film festivals including the Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video in Canada. Access: http://www.dancefilmsassn.org/.

• Digital Performance Archive. The Digital Performance Archive (DPA) documents the creative use of computer technologies for performance, including live theater and dance productions that incorporate digital media and Web casts. Access its searchable database of virtual performances from 1990 to 2001. A bibliography with more than 250 entries on digital performance is also available.
Access: http://dpa.ntu.ac.uk/dpa_site/.

Lesson plans for dance in K-12 curricula
• Free To Dance. Lesson Plans. Lesson 2: Modern Dance and the Harlem Renaissance. Although this Web site can seem confusing, four plans or activities are provided for high school students having seen the PBS Free to Dance videos. The "Free to Dance" Web site also includes a dance timeline (from 1619 to 2001), list of links, biographies, and other resources. Access: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/freetodance/lessonplans_2.html.

• The Kennedy Center Arts Edge - Curricula Lessons and Activities: Performing Arts. This site has more than 30 lesson plans involving dance activities are included here for K-12 teachers. Access: http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/teaching_materials/curricula/.

• PE Central. This database of lesson plans provides search access by keyword, subcategories, and title of lesson or activity. Results appear with clearly defined age/grade information at the top level.
Access: http://www.pecentral.org/lessonideas/dance/danceindex.asp.

Dancer health resources
• Dancer.com. Gaynor Minden, Inc. manufacturer of pointe shoes publishes this site, which includes the Dancer Links reviewed above. Of note is a useful section on "Health and Safety," including the "Ask a Dance Medicine Expert" column and an article on "Turnout, Tendonitis and Bunions."
Access: http://www.dancer.com.

• International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. Visit this site for the full-text position paper on The Challenge of the Adolescent Dancer and information on other dance medicine publications and issues. Its bulletin board for the dance science, medicine, and education communities contributes to the usefulness of this site. Access: http://www.iadms.org.


• Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS) Online. LIMS Online offers programs and conferences on the science of movement and a link to the corresponding Laban Web ring.
Access: http://www.limsonline.org/.

Other research resources
A. Magazines, newsletters and electronic journals
• Ballet Alert. Ballet Alert is a bimonthly online newsletter dedicated to classical ballet. This is the home of the active forum Ballet Talk. Access: http://www.balletalert.com/.

• Dance Europe. From Dance Europe magazine this site offers a good list of links on dancers, companies, festivals, tickets online, schools/studios, and miscellaneous. An excellent directory of dance schools in ten European countries is listed here including addresses, phone numbers, principal staff, courses, and fees is provided. Access: http://www.danceeurope.net/.

• Dance Magazine. Founded in 1927. Find some articles and reviews selected from the print publication as well as an online directory of selected schools. Access: http://www.dancemagazine.com/.

• Dance Teacher. View many full text articles from back issues of this magazine here. The site provides links to other magazines from the same publisher including Dance Spirit, American Cheerleader and Pointe.
Access: http://dance-teacher.com/.

• PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. PAJ is a scholarly journal available in full text to academic institutions with subscriptions to Project Muse. It covers many arts topics and includes reviews of new dance works. Access: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/performing_arts_journal/.

B. Article databases indexing dance publications and information
These databases are available from library Web sites with current subscriptions.

Academic Search Elite
Academic Universe (Lexis/Nexis)
Art Full Text
Arts and Humanities Search
ERIC
Ethnic NewsWatch
Humanities Index
International Index to Performing Arts
SIRS Knowledge Source

C. Bookstores specializing in dance titles
• Dance Books. Access: http://www.dancebooks.co.uk/.

• Dance Horizons and Princeton Book Company, Publishers. Access: http://www.dancehorizons.com/.

D. Copyright information for dance and choreography
• Copyright of Choreographic Works. This is an online version of an article by Julie Van Camp, from the 1994-95 Entertainment, Publishing and the Arts Handbook, edited by Stephen F. Breimer, Robert Thorne, and John David Viera. New York: Clark, Boardman, and Callaghan, 1994 (pp. 59-92). Copyright Julie C. Van Camp 1994. Access: http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/copyrigh.html.

• How Can Choreography Be Recorded In "Fixed" Form? A brief Web page on how to fix choreography as a tangible form using notation is presented here.
Access: http://edie.cprost.sfu.ca/~jacsen7/janedancerecord.html.

About the Author
Carol Hansen is instruction services librarian in the Stewart Library at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, e-mail: chansen@weber.edu